


You Can Coax the Cold Right Out of Me

by ashisnotmyname



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Friendship to Love, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 18:38:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5551100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashisnotmyname/pseuds/ashisnotmyname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas Eve, and Dan and Phil are at a Christmas party. How will a game of spin the bottle change their relationship?</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Coax the Cold Right Out of Me

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I know this is kind of an overused premise but I just thought it would be cute. I wrote this all in one go at 2 AM a few nights ago and edited it the next morning so I apologize if it's not the best, haha. Also, I used the American school system because I'm more familiar with it, but the story is set in the UK. Okay, I think that's it. Enjoy!

Christmas Eve, 11:39 PM

 

“Okay, c’mon, thass not even a circle,” Jenna slurred, trying to make sure everyone heard her. “Thass, like, a pentagon. Quit your pentagonal behavior.” She was sitting on her knees, swaying drunkenly. Most of the people in the room were under the influence of alcohol, but Dan wasn’t; it was Christmas Eve and if he woke up with a hangover on Christmas, his parents would probably eviscerate him.

Dan hated playing spin the bottle. It was a harmless game in theory, but in his experience, it just produced feelings of anxiety and awkwardness. Dan liked kissing, and he didn’t mind kissing his friends, but it was the whole everyone-watching part that made his skin prickle. A kiss was supposed to be an intimate moment between two people, not something that was watched by all your friends. He didn’t complain, though, it wouldn’t have done him any good. It seemed no one was getting out of the Christmas game of spin the bottle this year.

Jenna was the first to spin an empty beer bottle around in the middle of the circle. Dan tensed every time it passed him, not wanting to deal with the potential awkward situation. The bottle landed on Tyler, who was gay, but also drunk, so he didn’t object. He and Jenna made out passionately in the middle of the circle until Zoe pulled Jenna away, causing raucous laughter to erupt from the crowd.

Jenna had thrown a Christmas Eve party every year, starting in the seventh grade, and she always invited their close-knit group of friends. Most of them had met in middle school, but some people knew each other from elementary. The only consistent occurrence at these parties was the game of spin the bottle. Why? Dan wondered. It didn’t seem particularly festive to him. Every year, he thought of a way to get out of it, sometimes accompanied by Phil. This year, Jenna had insisted.

Tyler spun and the bottle landed on Louise, who was sitting on Dan’s right side. Dan had nearly had a heart attack as the bottle inched past him and stopped hesitantly in front of her. They kissed, and Dan leaned away as surreptitiously as possible. He tried his hardest not to wrinkle his nose at the obscene noises on his right, but he must have failed, because he heard Phil giggle softly to his left. He flicked his gaze over to Phil, who was laughing at Dan’s expression. Dan rolled his eyes, and Phil grinned.

Dan had obviously been too caught up in interacting with Phil, because Louise had spun the bottle and it was pointing at Phil. _Oh_. Dan backed up a few feet, listening to his friends cheer and make comments. For some reason, he couldn’t watch. Louise and Phil together just seemed inherently wrong.

Then it was Phil’s turn. Dan pondered if it might be possible to get through this game unscathed— in other words, without kissing anyone. Phil grabbed the bottle with a pale hand and spun it with a flick of his wrist. As Dan stared at the spinning bottle, everything else dulled, and the bottle seemed to be the focal point of his universe. Time had slowed down, and Dan’s entire world consisted of the dim lights of Jenna’s living room, the neatly vacuumed and slightly abrasive carpet he was sitting on, and the dark green bottle in the center of their circle, spinning so fast it blurred.

The bottle slowed to a stop… In front of Dan. _God damnit, I jinxed it_. Time sped up, and instantly, everyone was staring at him. _Oh_. Dan laughed as he turned to Phil, smiling tensely. Phil chuckled and raised his eyebrows. Dan wondered if Phil’s heart was also trying to jump out of his chest.

Dan had met Phil in second grade, when Phil moved to Manchester in the middle of the year and transferred to Dan’s school. As fate would have it, the only available seat in the class was next to Dan, and he and Phil became fast friends. In fact, once they got to know each other, they became almost inseparable. To this day, they spent more time together than they did alone. Dan wasn’t sure why, but whenever he wasn’t around Phil, he felt like something inside him was missing. He never got tired of being around Phil, because Phil made him feel… whole. Dan was more comfortable with Phil than anyone else, and they knew everything about each other. They accepted each other unconditionally. Dan wasn’t even sure if you would call their relationship friendship; it seemed more intimate than that.

Phil came out to Dan when they were fourteen. It was late at night, and they were sitting on Dan’s bed, playing video games, when Phil paused the game. Dan turned to him, saw the look on his face, and knew that something was off. Phil had been quieter lately, acting somber and pensive.

“What’s wrong, Phil?” Dan asked softly, Mario Kart music playing faintly in the background.

Phil looked blankly ahead at the TV. “We tell each other everything, right?”

“Right,” Dan replied, unsure where this was going. As soon as the word left his lips, he remembered something he hadn’t told Phil. He ignored the guilt. After all, he wasn’t even sure if there was anything to tell.

“Well, I want to tell you something, but I’m afraid you might hate me,” Phil said slowly.

Dan frowned. Had Phil done something bad? “That’s ridiculous. I’m not going to hate you.”

“You don’t know that,” Phil countered stubbornly.

Dan fell silent for a moment, thinking. “Okay, well, if I get mad, I promise I’ll let you explain. I’ll let you explain to me why I shouldn’t be mad.”

Phil turned to face him. “Do you promise?” He asked, staring at Dan intensely.

“Of course I do. Just tell me. It’s probably not as bad as you think.”

Phil swallowed audibly, fixing his gaze on Dan’s left foot. “I think… I mean, I don’t think, I know…” He trailed off, then started again. “What I’m trying to say is, I like boys. And girls. Both.” Warily, he raised his eyes to meet Dan’s.

“So… You’re bisexual?” Dan asked, slightly relieved.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Oh,” Dan said, considering this. “Thanks for telling me.”

Phil inspected him. “That’s it?”  “I guess. Did you want me to make a big deal of it?”

“No, I… I thought you’d hate me. Your parents—”

“I’m not my parents, Phil.”

“Okay,” Phil said. And then he started crying.

“Hey,” Dan said, pulling him into a hug. “It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.” He crossed his legs and pulled Phil into his lap, wrapping his arms around him. Phil pressed his face into Dan’s shoulder. They stayed that way for a long time. Eventually, Phil pulled away.

“Do you want me to sleep on the floor?” He asked meekly, wiping his face with his sleeve.

Dan scoffed. “We’ve been sharing a bed since we were eight. You’re the same person you were an hour ago.”  Phil looked at him with an expression Dan couldn’t quite decode. “Thanks.”

Dan had convinced Phil to come out to his parents, who were amazingly supportive. It made him a little jealous, to be honest. Dan knew if he were anything but straight, his parents would undoubtedly disown him. Dan and Phil’s friends had accepted Phil’s sexuality without batting an eyelash, and in the next three years, Phil had had relationships with a variety of genders.

That was partly what was making Dan nervous about kissing him. Phil had kissed lots of boys before; Dan had only ever kissed girls. The other component of this that was making Dan nervous was that… Phil was his best friend, and this could seriously change their relationship. Maybe it was dramatic, but Dan knew he would rather die than lose Phil.

Phil knew how Dan felt about spin the bottle. (Phil knew everything about Dan.) “Are you okay?” He asked very quietly.

“I’m fine,” Dan answered, anything but fine.

Suddenly, Phil’s hand was on Dan’s cheek, sliding down to cup his jaw. Dan stopped breathing. Phil leaned forward, pressing his lips gently against Dan’s. He tilted his head to deepen the kiss, moving his mouth against Dan’s. Dan kissed him back gently. Oh. Phil’s lips were soft and his skin was smooth. His mouth was hot, and Dan’s stomach flipped over and tried to eject itself when Phil pulled Dan’s bottom lip between Phil’s and licked across it with the tip of his tongue before letting go. Dan’s entire body was numb except for where he came into contact with Phil. Those places were burning. Kissing Phil, Dan realized, was like getting too close to an open flame. He could feel the fire licking his skin and shooting through his veins.

Dan was woozy when Phil pulled away. As soon as Phil’s hand dropped from his cheek, Dan’s entire body felt freezing cold. All he wanted was to fling himself back into the fire.  _Everybody’s staring at you,_ Dan told himself. He snapped out of it, shoving all of the things he was feeling into the corner of his mind. He reached forward and spun the bottle again, this time landing on Hannah. He kissed her without thinking about it, but this kiss was lukewarm and lifeless compared to kissing Phil.  
There were more spins, but Dan wasn’t paying attention. He was preoccupied with the heat that lingered on his lips from kissing Phil.

 _Phil’s your best friend._ Dan wanted to kiss his best friend. Dan wanted to do more than kiss his best friend. God. Everything felt fucked up.  
The game ended, and Dan’s friends scattered into smaller groups. He got up, feeling dizzy.

“Where’re you going, mate?” Chris asked.

“Bathroom,” Dan mumbled, as he ambled clumsily out of the room.

He found Jenna’s bathroom, opened the door, locked it, and slid down the doorframe, sitting down on the cold, white tile. Everything felt cold. Dan was dizzy and his brain was foggy. Were Phil’s lips laced with LSD?

Dan had had girlfriends before. None of his relationships had lasted long, and none of them had felt particularly special. He hadn’t understood why people loved kissing or holding hands or being with someone so much. He was seventeen, and he’d never really felt like he’d had a crush on a girl. Was that possible? He wasn’t a virgin, of course, but kissing Phil was better than any sex he’d ever had. There was something wrong with that, wasn’t there?

 _You’re probably just gay,_ he reasoned, groaning internally. It was too late and Dan was too tired to think about something as big as this; his head hurt from exhaustion. Maybe Phil would let him curl up in his arms to sleep for a while. Dan decided not to think about it. He got up, washed his hands, ran them through his hair, and walked carefully back to the living room.

“Dan,” PJ said as soon as he saw him. “Fifteen seconds to Christmas!”

It was always a big deal for Dan and his friends to count down to Christmas. It happened every year, almost the way a New Year’s countdown would. They all knew they were too old to do this, at seventeen and eighteen, but no one cared.

Dan walked over to stand by Phil. They exchanged a look that Dan didn’t understand the meaning of.

“Are you okay?” Phil asked in a low voice.

“10!”

Dan decided to tell the truth. “I don’t know.”

“9!”

“What’s wrong?” Dan wondered if Phil knew what was wrong. Wasn’t gaydar a thing?

“8!”

 _Just tell the truth; it’ll save you time._ “I think I’m in love with you.”

“7!”

“What?” Phil stared at Dan.

“6!”

“Sorry if that’s too forward.” Dan bit his lip.

“5!”

“I… thought you were straight?” Phil looked mildly confused.

“4!”

Dan shrugged. “So did I.”

“3!”

“Dan.” Phil paused. “We need to talk.”

“2!”

“Okay.”

“1!” 

“MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

Phil grabbed Dan’s arm and led him outside, onto Jenna’s porch. Snow crunched under their feet and their breath swirled through the air. As soon as Phil let go of Dan’s hand, a cold unlike any other washed over Dan.

“Dan,” Phil said, “How much alcohol have you had?”  Dan frowned at him, slightly hurt. “I haven’t had any. You would have been able to taste it when we kissed.”

Phil studied him, then admitted “I’ve been in love with you since we were thirteen.” He flashed Dan a small smile. “What took you so long?”

Dan’s eyes widened. “Really? That long?”

“Yeah,” Phil said very softly. “I tried so hard to move on, but I couldn’t. I thought it was going to kill me.”

Dan stepped forward, unsure of himself. He wrapped his arms around Phil’s waist, pulling him close, and kissed his nose. Phil chuckled. Dan kissed Phil for the second time that night, feeling the delicious heat envelop him. Phil licked Dan’s bottom lip again, and Dan opened his mouth to meet Phil’s tongue with his own. They pulled away, but in a few seconds, Phil connected their lips again.

They stayed on the porch for a few minutes, kissing and holding each other.

Dan nuzzled his face against Phil’s neck. “Merry Christmas, Phil.”

“Merry Christmas, Dan,” Phil replied.

It was freezing cold outside, but Dan and Phil had never felt so warm.


End file.
